Carson to the Rescue

General Oliver O. Howard arrived in Arizona in 1872 with orders to make peace humanely with the Apache.  A deeply religious man, Howard was respected by most men who met him, including Thomas Jeffords.  The two men went to meet Cochise together and a truce was reached.  Cochise even agreed to go on a reservation if Jeffords was appointed Indian Agent for the Chiricahua Apache tribe.  Terms were met and the war seemed over.  It had cost the United States 1000 men and $40 million.  Cochise lived out his days in peace and died on June 8, 1874 with Jeffords at his side.

Meanwhile the Apache weren't the only trouble the white settlers had in the Southwest.  The Comanche and Kiowa had always been allies against the white men and other tribes, and during the Civil War it intensified.  In 1864, while the US was dealing with Cochise, the Kiowa and Comanche attacked a wagon train on the Santa Fe Trail, taking five small boys as hostages.  Kit Carson, a Union Officer then, took off in pursuit with 350 volunteers and 75 Ute scouts. 

At Adobe Walls, an abandoned trading post in the Texas Panhandle near the Canadian River, some 1000 Comanche and Kiowa waited.  The Indian numbers were offset by the Union's two howitzers.  The volunteers made an orderly retreat after burning down a Kiowa village as a parting gesture. 
Carson claimed victory with 2 dead and 10 wounded, but later admitted he was lucky to have gotten his men out of the Canadian River Valley.

Navajo also menaced the white settlers and the peaceful Pueblo  in New Mexico.  When the US troops has withdrawn for the Civil War, their attacks became bolder until Colonel Kit Carson led 400 men against them in 1863-1864.  Carson destroyed the Navajo flocks and gardens, then invaded the Canyon de Chelly stronghold.  3000 Indians were marched 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico where they were held for four years before being moved to a reservation.  The end of another proud civilization...

Next time...Sioux in Minnesota
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Today in Pioneer History:  On November 27, 1868, after being convicted of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers earlier in the year in a military court, the government had suspended Custer from rank and command for one year.  Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle massacring all of them.  Not a hero!

Suddenly It All Changes!

Little Iberian horses were kept in the pueblos for the benefit of the Spanish masters (caballero or horsemen).  Following the Spanish defeat at the hands of the Pueblos, these horses were either stolen or released to the wild by the Pueblo who had little use for them. The effect was revolutionary!

Of those of the Southwest who mastered the horse, the Apache, Navajo and Comanche - the Comanche did it the best.  It was said of Native Americans with horses "to have possessed a liberty and power which made them a terror to sedentary Indians like the Pueblo, to the northern Spaniards and to the Americans coming west."

The first horse masters were the Apache and Navajo who used their horses for lightning raids and quick escape.  They seldom fought on horseback, never bred them and often used them for food.  Raiding for new horses became as much as part of their lives as hunting. 

The Apache and Navajo spoke similar languages.  Both tribes were loosely organized in small family bands.  Both were skilled with the bow and lance.  Neither tribe had complex ceremonies or artifacts.  They came to the Southwest shortly before the Spanish arrived.  Rich mythology and long lists of taboos characterized both tribes. One taboo was a belief that a man must never speak or even look at his mother-in-law. 

 A horror for witches and the dead were shared by both tribes.  Ghosts were thought to have malign power.  Both tribes buried their dead along with their possessions as quickly as possible to ward off evil. 

The Apache and Navajo so closely resembled each other that the Spaniards first called them "Apache de Navajo". 

Next time...Fear the Comanche!
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Today in Pioneer History: On June 27, 1880, Helen Keller was born.  Keller was born blind and deaf but by the teachings of Anne Sullivan broke through her isolation to learn to communicate.  She was the first blind and deaf person to earn a Bachelor's Degree. 

Meet the Southwest Native Americans

The Spaniards claimed sovereignty over the vast land of the Southwest, settlements and people.  They saw the native tribes as incapable of assimilating true civilization and therefore easily exploitable.
Oh not so fast Spain!

These Native American tribes included:
*Pueblo - sedentary with terraced towns and well-tended farms.  Predates the Spanish arrival.
*Apache, Navajos - nomadic, raiders
*Comanche - nomadic, raiders and greatly feared by both Spanish and other tribes
*California tribes and Coahuiltecans (Texas) - primitive hunters of small game and plant gatherers who adapted rather easily to mission life.  Disease virtually wiped these peoples out in later years.

The Pueblo lived in what is now is Arizona and New Mexico and had a well-developed culture and extensive agriculture even before the Spanish arrived.  Tribal name - Hopi (peaceful ones).  The Pueblo taught the Navajo farming, herding and weaving. 

In August 1680 they finally rebelled against the Spanish rulers in one of the truly successful Indian rebellions in North American history.  Led by obscure medicine man Pope` Tewa who had ben publicly flogged twice for speaking out against Spanish rule, the rebellion exploded, routing the Spanish in a few weeks and sending those not killed back to Mexico.  The revolt had enormous significance to the nomadic for the tribes of the Southwest...

Next time...the significance of that victory
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Today in Pioneer History: On June 23, 1878, Martin Sweeny, a former Indian agent and Arizona mining entrepreneur, is murdered near Tombstone, Arizona, in a dispute over a mining property.